You are listening to Bible Direction for Life, the sermon podcast of West Side Baptist Church in Bremerton, Washington. We pray that the preaching and teaching you hear on this podcast connects the truth of the Bible to your life. That you would learn more about the triune God who made you and what He made you for. And now, here's today's message. I'm thankful to be in church this morning for the first Sunday of the New Year. I got all confused last week because Pastor Peter's sermon was about being in the Word in the New Year and I thought that that was January 1 for some reason. And so I got all confused and had different things wrong on the schedule. But I'm back on track and on schedule now here for January 7, excited to be with all of you today. Turn to 1 Peter chapter 1. 1 Peter chapter 1. We will get to that text in just a moment, so be sure to be there. A couple weeks ago, I encountered some difficulty here in the auditorium, some personal difficulty. A couple of young men walked up to me with some chocolate, and it's Christmas time, chocolate's around. They even warned me, they said, this is pepper chocolate, it's hot. And they said, you know, we ate a whole block of it. And I'm looking at these little kids, and I'm like, okay, well, if they ate a whole block, then I can take this little chunk of it that they're giving to me. And of course, you know, you also just take the challenge because they challenged you to it, and so you throw it in your mouth. And then very shortly after that, I was realizing that You know, I'm not exactly cut out for heat. And this is a ghost pepper chocolate that I just threw into my mouth and it was a lot hotter than I expected. Thankfully I was leaving because if I had stayed there was no way I would be able to talk to anyone and maintain any kind of coherent conversation. But immediately I'm trying to deal with this. difficulty that I've been presented with by what do I do to get myself out of this, you know? So, all I had was a bottle of water. I was looking forward to getting home and getting some milk and throwing some other things in my mouth to try to just get rid of that sensation that, you know, the burning in your throat and the heat in your mouth and the watering of the eyes, you know, trying to get past all of that. But if I had been smart, the best way out of that kind of situation is just to not eat the chocolate. Just don't take the challenge in the first place. And that'll save you from all of that problem. And there's a lot of things in life that are like that. You know, people can say, oh man, my stomach is just tearing me up. Well, maybe don't have Taco Bell at 9 o'clock in the evening. And, you know, you'll be able to get a good night's sleep. And the proper counsel that you need is just don't do that. There are plenty of other things in life that are like this. Listen, I just get so angry every time I'm on social media. I just get so wound up about all the things that are going wrong with our government. They are just blowing it and I'm just so angry and I wish I didn't get angry all the time. Well, maybe don't get on X or don't get on Facebook and see this stuff and maybe your life will be a little bit calmer. Very often the solution to the difficulties that we face are as simple as us just avoiding something simple in the first place, just avoiding putting ourselves in that situation. And our society sometimes would like to tell us that okay you're facing difficulty as a Christian, you Christians, you group of people over there who follow Jesus. You say that you're facing difficulty or that you're feeling put out of society, you're put into the corner and you don't like feeling like you're back to the corner, just stop following Jesus. It seems like the option on the table for them is just, well, that's optional, get rid of it. But not everything in life can be solved by just, you know, avoiding the difficulty. Sometimes you need to go through it. And the megaphones that our society hold are all blaring this message at us to say abandon your faith in Jesus. So whether that's you're being told to bake a cake for a wedding or else you're going to lose your business and be fined thousands of dollars. Or maybe you're told, listen, worship is non-essential to the minimum viable product of society. And so since that's not a part of the MVP, then close it down in the name of health and safety. No more worship. Our national leaders and civic institutions begin playing God with the economy and with the markets and end up making prices go really high and very difficult for us to live. And it puts a particular challenge on single income households. and encourage parents to delegate their responsibilities to the state or to daycares. So there's all of these pressures that we can begin feeling, and even the national media constantly bombarding us with basically the same message. Listen, you're on the outside. And all it would take for you to not endure the pressures of society is just to stop it. That's what Nebuchadnezzar wanted to say to the three Hebrew children as they were facing the fire. Listen, this is easy, guys, and I'm going to give you another chance. You get burned in the furnace. If you do not bow down, you have not bowed down. Last chance, boys. And they say, listen, the only way out of this fire is straight through it. and they end up by God's grace in a miraculous saving and then walk through that fire unscathed as Pastor John read about this morning. And so not everything that we, not every situation of life that we face we can get out of just by running away from it. And not every situation that we face like that should we get out by running away from it. But our society has shifted and the pressure of our society on us is to walk away from Jesus. Now this has always been true about societies in general that Christianity, there has never been a perfect society that perfectly fostered our faith in Jesus. However, our society has become increasingly so, increasingly antagonistic toward those who would try to follow Jesus compared to times past. And Pastor Peters talked about this before with Aaron Wren's view of the three evangelical worlds, the negative world, the neutral world, and the positive world. And just to review that real quick, Aaron Wren talks about a time when being a Christian was a positive good for you. It was a good thing. If you were a Christian, people counted you as being someone of integrity, someone who could be trusted, someone who could be put into positions of leadership. And then we moved into another stage he describes as a neutral world in which Christianity, it's like choosing your sports team or choosing the brand of clothes you wear. People aren't really going to hold that against you. It's just another choice in society. But then now we've moved into, what he describes, the negative world, in which being a Christian has a negative influence on your ability to function in society. And you know as we are coming to 1 Peter, Peter is writing to Christians who were like us being pressured by their society to abandon their faith. Now all scripture is given by inspiration from God and is profitable for us. There isn't a scripture in the Bible that you are going to turn to that you are not going to find some kind of benefit for you as a believer following Jesus. But there are some scriptures that we come to, like this in 1 Peter, where the situation of the original audience begins to map onto our situation more directly, and it resonates with us in a different way. So for instance, if you're a parent in here, the reading passages of the scripture about parenting just hit different after you've had your first child. reading passages about the loss of a loved one, and the hope of Heaven means something different to you when you've recently lost someone who was really close to you who believed in Christ. These passages hit and resonate with you differently based on the circumstance that you find yourself in. And because we find ourselves in a circumstance like we are where Christianity is increasingly being seen as a negative thing in our world we find ourselves having more in common with the people that Peter is writing to here in this text. And so for the next, as long as it takes to get through 1 Peter, God willing, I'm going to begin doing a series in the times that I have to preach through the book of 1 Peter. Now I had already accidentally started this series a few weeks ago when I preached 1 Peter 1, 1 and 2. So we're going to skip ahead to verses 3 through 9, but we'll read all of these here this morning. So now look in your Bibles at 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse number 1. Apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. grace unto you, and peace be multiplied. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which, according to His abundant mercy, has begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. wherein you greatly rejoice. Though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations, that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than gold, it perisheth, though it is tried with fire, might be found unto praise, and honor, and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ, whom, having not seen, ye love. In whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls." Let's pray this morning before we get started. Father in Heaven, I come to you this morning in need of your grace, in need, Father, of your mercy and love. And Lord, this passage this morning bears with it the encouragement of your Gospel. And it gives us encouragement to continue and stay strong and be strong in the faith. And Lord, I pray that you would help us to come to understand it this morning, that the words that we hear would be used by your spirit to encourage us to remain faithful to you, even in the difficult times, even when life is hard and when trials come. And Lord, that kind of work, I can communicate what those words say, but Father, that encouraging and that bolstering of our faith is a work that we need you to do. And so please, I pray that you would do it this morning, even in my own heart. And we ask this in Jesus' name, amen. All right, so as we move into this text. Verses 3 through 12 in the original Greek are one big sentence. So this is a long sentence that you would probably get marked incorrect on your English exam if you tried to write a run-on sentence like this one. But it is split up in our English Bibles into three different sentences and they really kind of map onto three different groups of thought that happen here in this section of Scripture. We're going to deal with the first two today and then God willing the next time I have the opportunity to preach we will deal with the third segment of thought here. But so we've got two big groups. One is where he starts in verse number three. He says, Blessed be God, the Father. And so he's going to give praise to God. And then he says, In this, in this reality that I am praising God for, you are rejoicing. And he explains how they are rejoicing in this reality, even in the middle of their trials. Okay, so there's the big breakdown of the text. Now let's jump into it for just a moment. Now, in order to do this, I'm going to take just a quick second to talk about who Peter is writing to. We dealt with this a little bit the last time in verses 1 and 2. But if you look at 1 and 2 we see a couple of things. One, these are people who are located in Asia Minor. Now this is modern day Turkey just south of the Black Sea and north and west of Israel. So in the far reaches, good ways from Rome, a little bit into the far reaches of the Roman Empire and this group of people are living there. only are they people living there but they are Christian people. These are people who have decided to follow Christ according to what we see in verse number 2, they have been chosen by God, elect by Him, they have been sanctified by the Spirit into obedience of Jesus, and so they are followers of Christ. Now as to their particular backgrounds that's a little more ambiguous, but there have been people that say that these are Gentiles who have been converted from their pagan religions to Christianity by either missionary movements, or just by people who had naturally moved to different parts of the Roman Empire from places like Jerusalem or Rome where there would have been some kind of Christian influence, and then that's how the Gospel got there. That's one way of seeing who these people are. The other thought is that these are Jewish Christians who have been exiled from Rome under the Emperor Claudius. He exiled people to various parts of his empire in order to colonize and fill the empire with people who knew of the glory of Rome. And the Christians there in Rome were people who seemed like a little bit of troublemakers and could be sent off to that part of the world and not be missed here in Rome. So let's send them. And so it could be that the people he is writing to are not only as he is going to say that not only are they exiles and foreigners in a foreign land as Christians, but he might be pulling that metaphor from their actual experience, that they are literally people whose lives have been uprooted and moved into this new zone, and now they've got to settle into a new environment. regardless of which group of people that is, and we'll deal with more of those specifics as we move into specific texts throughout the book. But regardless of who that is Peter is writing to people who are struggling in that region of the Empire, not from direct persecution like is going to happen later where there is martyrdom in the name of Jesus, but rather just from being pushed to the outskirts of their society and being seen as odd and and not the kind of people we want occupying the centers of authority and power in our environments. These are not the kind of people, they were not allowed to have access to the cultural centers of their time because of their faith in Christ. And there are even some, they are suffering certain oppression from the people around them because of their individual faith in terms of interpersonally. And so that's these people that we are dealing with that Peter is writing to. And he begins by saying to them, he's said, here's who you are. And if you'll remember what we talked about last time, we talked about the marketing strategy that says, people like us do things like this. Here's who we are, and this is what we do, so you should join and be a part of it. And if Peter is presenting a marketing plan for Christianity, he's not really marketing, but he's starting with saying, it's people like us who are going to do things like this. And before he tries to give them specific advice for how to deal with their difficult situation, he's got to start by pointing out, here's who you are. And if you don't know who you are, you're not going to know how you are supposed to act. So he starts with the, here's who you are, and then he moves to a doxology. He says, blessed be God. Now, of course, we as humans cannot bless God in the same way we talk about being a blessing to someone else. We can't be the benefactor of God. God needs nothing from us. God has given all things to us, and so there is nothing we have to offer to Him. This is blessedness in the sense of a eulogy or a word of praise to God, that we are praising God. Why? here's what he says, look at verse number 3 with me, which according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. So at the center of this we are supposed to praise God because Peter is praising God because He has begotten these people again in Him. So begotten, having been born, they've been birthed, they have come to a new life in Jesus. because of what Jesus has done, and because of the sprinkling of the blood of Christ on them, they are now a part of a new family. And all of these terms here that he is using to describe this event, he is using like a covenantal family relationship language. He says, we have been born again. And who does he say is to be blessed? He specifies, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. that we have been born again, we have God as our Father, Jesus Christ as our Elder Brother, and we are experiencing the benefits of being in that relationship. And He says that we are brought into that according to His mercy. See what it says there it says, according to His abundant mercy we have been brought into this relationship. And And that word mercy is the same word that in the Old Testament describes God's covenant faithfulness to His people. So God had promised to His people that I am going to be with you. I am going to be your God. You are going to be my people. And He establishes these covenants with them. He regularly keeps His promises to His people. And then eventually He makes this new covenant with Christ of which we are a part that then when we are in Christ we are now brought into the family of God. So, He is saying praise to God because we have new life, new family, a new connection to God in this way. God has made a promise to us and God is going to keep it. But how do we know that God is going to keep His promise of bringing us into His family, and of making us a part of His people? Well it says, He has begotten us again unto a lively hope. How? By the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Christ's resurrection both assures us that the work that Jesus did on the cross for our sins is effective. That our sins have truly been dealt with so that we can be a part of the covenant family. And it assures us of hope in the future. that because the only reason we would need mercy is if we were under some kind of judgment. And that judgment has been dealt with by Jesus. So this is being assumed here by Peter as he's writing. But we have been brought out of being under the judgment of God by His mercy to through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. The resurrection of Jesus from the dead is the guarantee that we have of enjoying a lively hope that we're not going to die, or that on the other side of death rather is resurrection. That's the confidence that we have as a result of Jesus raising from the dead. So, we've got the emphasizing of our relationship to Him as sons and daughters of God. The emphasizing of the just judgment of God having been poured out on Jesus, and His covenant love being now given to us. He has emphasized the transition from death to new life, and the resurrection of Jesus that proves that our Atonement was effective, and that new life that we have in Christ is guaranteed. because we as Christians have been reborn now into His family, He also says that we have an inheritance with Him. That part of being in His family is that we inherit what He has, like being a part of any family. And so we've got the question, what is this inheritance that He is promising to us? Well this to me was a little bit to nail down in some kind of specific terms. And so, because it's one thing to say that we're inheriting something from God, and we know that we're going to have eternal life, right? But then what is this inheritance? What exactly is it? If I inherit something from my father, it's going to come in the term in some kind of legal document with pages that say, here's exactly what you're going to receive. And yet, I personally did not have a clear idea of what the inheritance that Christ was giving us was. And so, trying to ask that question, We know from the text it is at least eternal life, right? That He has born us again into a lively hope so that we don't have to be concerned about death being the end, but rather we can look forward to resurrection. So that's part of the inheritance that we are going to receive. It mentions that Jesus Christ is Lord of all. if Jesus is Lord then we are in some way inheriting the Kingdom of God with Him, that there is an inheritance of the Kingdom. That we are going to have some part in the family business as it were with Christ. But then when we begin to look at other texts, I want you to turn over to Romans chapter 8 with me. Romans chapter 8 we're going to look at a couple verses there. And if you want to go to Hebrews chapter 1 we're going to be there in just a second too, so you might as well get your finger in both places. Romans chapter 8, look at verse number 15, let's start there. We'll just jump right in the middle of this. "'For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.'" So this is talking about our being connected to God as our Father. "'The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God. joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with Him that we may also be glorified together." So we are in this term we are heirs of what Christ is going to inherit. We are heirs of God Himself. So what is Christ going to inherit? Keep your finger at Romans 8 we'll come back there in just a second. But jump over to Hebrews chapter 1. God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed the heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds." Okay, so we're joint heirs with Christ. What is Christ inheriting? He's inheriting all things. Now go back to Romans chapter 8 and look down later in the chapter, verse 32, He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? We are joiners with Christ, He is going to inherit all things and we are going to inherit all things with Him. Now that doesn't exactly still fit the bill of a nice clean legal document of exactly what does our inheritance look like. but it's pretty big and we know that we're taken care of. It's like if I were to say that I'm the son of Elon Musk, right? I am his son and I am going to inherit his colossal empire of things. I don't know exactly how all of that's going to work out. Do I inherit Tesla? Am I supposed to manage SpaceX? What exactly is my role in the new inheritance? I don't know, but what I do know is I'm taken care of. I wouldn't have to worry about not having what I need when the time came. And how much more then the inheritance that God has promised to His children who are now a part of His family, even though we might not know what exactly the specifics look like of the inheritance that God has prepared for us, we know that we are taken care of because we know the resources of our Father and we know the goodness and kindness of Him that has been shown to us in the person of Jesus Christ. only do we have this inheritance though, but he goes on to say that this inheritance is absolutely undestroyable, indestructible. He says this inheritance is being guarded in Heaven for us. He says it is incorruptible which means it is unable to be destroyed. He says it is undefiled which means it is untainted by sin. And if you think, the reason that reparations in our day is a sticky issue that people talk about and try to bring up is because there is such a thing as an inheritance that is tainted by evil. Where if my great-grandfather had embezzled his company for money and had not been caught and restitution had not been made, and now he's a multi-millionaire, and then he passes that on to me, Well then at some point whenever that crime is revealed what do we do with the money? It's kind of tainted now by this story and this narrative of Him taking this money from other people. And so what do I do? How do I handle it? That inheritance would have been tainted by sin in some way. But our inheritance is not like that. Christ has the perfect right to the inheritance that He is receiving and there is no taint of defilement here in this inheritance that we are going to receive. this inheritance does not fade away. It does not diminish with time. Time does not destroy it. Jesus Himself said, and perhaps Peter is thinking of this that we are supposed to lay up our treasures in Heaven where the moth and rust do not corrupt, thieves don't break through and steal. The inheritance that we have in Heaven that we are laying up with Christ is one that cannot be destroyed. But not only do we have an inheritance as a member of God's family that is being reserved for us perfectly, but we are being preserved for that inheritance as well. And It would be no good if someone said, Josh, you are going to inherit $27 million from your father. He didn't realize he was just incredibly rich all of a sudden. But you're going to inherit $27 million, but it's only going to come to you in 2030. And then I also be given a diagnosis of terminal illness that's going to take me out before the year's over. The inheritance is no good. But God promises, not only am I reserving this inheritance for you, but I am preserving you for your inheritance. He says in verse number 5, you are kept by the power of God through faith unto the salvation ready to be revealed at the last time. of the strength and power of God. All of God is present. All of His power, His ability to act is present in keeping you for the inheritance that He has prepared for you. And how does He do that? He does it through faith. just like the Bible says, for by grace are you saved through faith and not of yourselves. Even the faith is the gift of God, but not of works that any man may boast. We are saved by grace. It is God's grace that saves us. And what is the mechanism that is used there? It's our faith in God, our belief in Him and what He has done on our behalf. And in the same way if we were to ask how is God keeping us for the inheritance that He is going to bring us to, how is He doing that? He is doing that by our faith. What it looks like for God's power to show up and keep someone for His inheritance is for them to continue believing in Him, continue expressing that faith in Christ by being obedient to His Word and observing all things whatsoever He has commanded you. That's what it looks like for the power of God to be at work in preserving us for the inheritance. So this is what he is saying to these people who are in the far reaches of the empire who are being oppressed by their friends and neighbors and family around them to try to abandon the faith, being tempted to set their faith and belief aside. Peter says to them, Praise God because God has made you a part of His family. As a part of His family you have new life and the hope of resurrection. Your sins have been dealt with. And not only that, but you have an inheritance that is coming in the future. And that inheritance is being guarded by me and you are being guarded for it. That's what He's praising God for. In the middle of all of this, this is true about you. That's what he points out to them. And then he says, and in this you rejoice. This is what he knows that they are rejoicing in, is this reality that God is at work to bring them into the family and to give them this inheritance and to bless them with that kind of living hope. But Peter doesn't sugarcoat, he doesn't ignore the fact that there are difficulties that they are facing right now in their lives. says, wherein you greatly rejoice, though now, look at verse number 6, though now for a season, if need be, you are in heaviness through manifold temptations. He acknowledges that they are in the middle of difficulties. He talks about in the next verse, he says, that the trial of your faith is This is not just because all this grand vision of you are a member of the family of God, and you have an inheritance that is waiting for you, and you have your sins forgiven, and you are taken care of. This grand vision that he has is not some pie in the sky thing that he just acts like we can close our eyes and ignore all of what's around us, and all of the difficulties and just sail through life like nothing is wrong. He acknowledges that there are real hardships that we are facing right now. So notice a couple of things about this. First of all in the book of 1 Peter when he talks about these difficulties and these trials he is referring specifically to the difficulties that arise as a result of our obedience of Jesus. So he's not talking about calamities that come upon you that would you know a tornado takes out your home. He's not talking about effects of sin like disease that would take someone from you, or take your health from you. That's not specifically what he's trying to deal with here. What his focus is, is on the difficulties and the trials that we face as a result of us trying to be obedient to Jesus. So, that's important to keep in mind. Another thing, he uses two different words here. He says temptation and trial. And there's an important distinction that needs to be made there, even though they are both describing the same kinds of hardships that they are facing. So, a temptation, think of it from the point of view of the enemy. The enemy wants to tempt believers to abandon their faith in Jesus. And a successful temptation is a temptation that causes one to walk away from Christ. So, hey, that temptation worked. That is said when the believer walks away from Christ. A trial or a test is like a testing in school or maybe a product testing where you're pushing it to the limits to see where its breaking points are, so that then you can shore it up and strengthen it even more so that it can accomplish what it was meant to accomplish, so that it's more refined and more strong. And so a test has as its goal not the destruction of the thing, but rather it's strengthening, it's building, it's forming in success. So both of these things can be active in the same time. Think of Joseph, he says to his brothers, he says, you meant this for evil, but God meant it for good. In the same action the brothers of Joseph wanted to see him destroyed, and God wanted to preserve Israel. All of those things happening in the same action. And that's what can happen, that's what's going on in the middle of these trials that these people are facing. There is both an element in which God is testing, and trying, and building them up. And there is an element in which the enemy is trying to destroy them, and turn them aside from following Christ. And then in verse number 6 I want you to notice too a couple of things. He says, for a season, and if need be. The trials that they are facing He is reminding them that the difficulties that they are facing as a result of following Jesus are temporary. That ultimately these are going to go away, even if they last your whole life. In light of eternity these are nothing. To me, I'm 35 years old, there are people in here who are almost double my age. And so when I just make a comment or something about, I'm starting to feel old or something like that, then someone that's twice my age can say, yeah, whatever, buddy. That's crazy. You've got a lot to learn. You've got a lot to grow through. You've got a lot to experience. I can look at kids who are half my age and I can say the same thing. And as time goes on, those amounts of time look smaller and smaller and smaller and less and less and less significant. And just imagine what we're going to look back on the trials of our life with what kind of perspective we're going to look back on the trials of our life in a thousand years or in ten thousand years. The trials of our life are going to really truly be but for a moment. So they are now for a season and even in life trials are very often just seasonal. And it says if need be. Well who determines whether it's necessary for you to go through a trial? The good loving Father whose family we have joined. He is the one who decides that. Look at what it says too in verse number 6, he says, "'If need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold,' that's many temptations. that it's possible that right now, he's talking to these people, he's not hiding any of the reality from them. He says, you're rejoicing in this, even though right now, if need be, your joy is tainted with this heaviness. So he's saying that this difficulty is not just something that is not real, it's fake, you should just ignore it, and if you're burdened down by it, well, you're just not a good enough Christian. No, he says if you're walking under this weight, it might appear like you're carrying a burden. It might actually look on your face like a little bit of sadness, maybe some tears, and there will be pain and some aches and groaning as you walk and carry through this trial. But there is still a type of joy and rejoicing that can endure even in that heaviness. So he doesn't ignore the real pain that these trials cause. point that he is making is that we are being tempted in these moments to walk away. There are two things happening. One we are being tempted in these moments to walk away from Jesus. That these people who are facing these difficult circumstances are being tempted by the enemy to abandon their faith and say, ok I'm going to leave my faith at home today when I go hang out with this family member. Or I'm going to leave my faith at home today as I go and serve my civic duty here at the town center. Whatever they are doing the temptation is to leave Jesus aside and stop following Him. at the same time that the enemy is trying to turn them aside, God is at work to test them. And it says in verse number 7, that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perishes though it is tried by fire, might be found unto praise, and honor, and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. So that while the enemy is working to destroy the faith of these believers, God is using that same fire that the enemy is sending to purify their faith, to demonstrate its value, and its worth, and its strength, and its stability. God is at work to keep that faith strong. And that the temptation that we face is to walk away from it. look at this beautiful portrayal that He gives of their faith. So He says, God is working to refine your faith and it is going to result in praise, and honor, and glory when Christ comes back. Because it demonstrates that yes, all of the power of God was there to keep you believing in Him all the way to the time that you received your inheritance, that salvation that was ready to be revealed at the last time. God is keeping you for that. look at how he describes their faith in verse number 8. This is beautiful and something worth aspiring to. At the appearing of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen, ye love. In whom though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. That though ye do not see this Christ that ye follow, this Jesus, who is your Lord, ye love him. And though even now you don't see Him, yet you believe in Him and you are rejoicing with a joy that is unspeakable. A type of joy that isn't easily spoken because it's so deep and meaningful that it's hard to put into words. A joy that exists even when you are bearing under the fires of trial and temptation. And it is that joy that right now is even now bringing glory to God. He says it's right now full of glory. It's full of weight and goodness that in the middle of your trials, you are continuing to believe and follow God. That is an incredibly glorious thing. So if we were to look at what Peter's saying here, exiles, hope of the new birth, and of their inheritance with Christ is enabling them to rejoice even amid the trials of their faith. The hope and their faith that got them started on this journey is the same faith that is bringing them through it. The faith that got them into this mess in the first place is the same faith that brings them through it. The faith that got them put under the fires of temptations and trials is the the same faith that keeps them all the way through the end, and the same faith that remains and that God is using to bring them along the way. And look at this, verse number 9 is this beautiful, and mysterious, and incredible verse, incredible reality that is being described here. He says, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls, that as these believers are walking through these trials, they are being tempted to turn away from Jesus, and yet they are bearing that weight and continuing to follow Him, even when it's hard, even when people are putting pressure on them to abandon Him. As they are doing that, there is some, in some way, they are even now receiving the end of this faith. The goal that they are after, which is the salvation of their souls, somehow, by God's mysterious providence and His work, He is even now saving their souls. They are experiencing right now the salvation that they are being kept for. So that if you want to taste heaven, he would say to them, if you want to know the experience of that lively hope, if you want to know what it's like to have the inheritance that I'm saving for you, then bear up in faith under those trials. Hang on to your faith. Continue to live in obedience to me even when it's hard, even when it's difficult, even when you want to quit, even when things get heavy. He's saying to hang on and be strong. And that's a beautiful thing, that the salvation of God is available to us even now. So where are you, believer, today, tempted to leave your faith at home? Where are you tempted to abandon Jesus, to put Him in a box, to save Him for later, maybe save Him for when you come to church? Where are you tempted to walk away from Him? Maybe it's when you're going home to be with family over the holidays that you want to put Jesus in a box because you don't want to endure the ridicule and the mockery that you know that you're going to receive from your family as you talk about the things that you are doing, the decisions that you are making that don't make sense to them because they don't believe. Or maybe it's when you put Jesus in a box, that you're tempted to put Jesus in a box because when you go to work and you live according to the ways of the Kingdom of God and you start living the way of discipleship that Jesus taught and you're trying to follow Him and believe in Him as your Lord, that then that creates conflict with your co-workers. Maybe because they see your light shining and it shows the darkness of their own hearts. Maybe because they just have an axe to grind with the church or with Christianity, and they make it difficult for you, and it seems as though the hope of promotion, the hope of advance in your workplace is hampered as a result of your faith in Christ. And you're tempted to just leave Jesus at home, leave Him here at church, leave Him in a pew Bible, and pick Him back up when it's convenient. Maybe this morning you just doubt your own salvation. that you come to church and it's difficult even to be at church and maintain your faith and belief in Christ, and it feels like the pressure is to walk away from Jesus, but you've also got peer pressure to stay with Jesus and you don't know what you think, and your faith feels like it's in a wreck. And you feel like you're walking through fire and you don't know what to do. In all of this, the faith that got you into this mess in the first place, the belief that got you into this hard time that you're facing. The temptation that you're going to feel is to throw it off. Because just like the chocolate, the best way not to have my mouth burning and on fire is just not to eat the thing in the first place. And so you might be tempted to say, you know what, the problem, I'm going to pinpoint the problem here is my Christianity and that's what has to go. But that is not an option. those who are followers of Jesus, we must continue to bear under and through the trials. But we can know that the same faith that got us into this mess is the faith that's going to take us through. And here's the glorious thing, God is keeping your faith for you. At the end, no matter how hard you struggle, no matter how hard you try to believe and to trust and to follow Jesus, at the end of the day it is God that is working in you. It is not us. Look at verse number 5 again, who are kept by the power of God. All of the power of God is at work keeping you for the inheritance that He has set you apart for. You don't have to face these difficulties in life as though you need more strength or more willpower or some kind to just man up or lady up to take this on. No, instead it is you just need to continue believing that God's got you. You need to continue believing that the power of God is at work in you and that He is going to see you through. For Peter this is not an abstract theological truth that he learned in a Sunday school and just kind of keeps it written in the front of his Bible. For Peter, this is very tangible. Remember, he knows what it's like to throw his chips all in with Jesus. He said, I'm all with you. I said, I'm throwing aside my fishing business and my inheritance of my father, and I am pursuing you, Jesus. He comes to a moment where he says, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. You are the Messiah. You are the one who has come, who is Lord of all, and I am following you. I'm all with you. and he sacrifices and follows and is zealous for Jesus. But then things take an unexpected turn, and Jesus is betrayed by one of their friends. And then even when Peter tries to defend Jesus, Jesus says no, and somehow Jesus walks into an entrapment of a trial. And Peter finds himself in the middle of this situation as his friend and Lord is now being tried to be put to death, And as Jesus is going through that, Peter is so confused and befuddled and ashamed, and his faith is wavering so much, that as he's standing around a fire with people, and they say, ah, you're one of those guys, aren't you? He says, no, no, no, not me. And then another one says, no, no, I know I've seen you with Jesus before. Who is Jesus? And he finds himself feeling the shame of abandoning the faith that he had in Christ. But then not only that, But then Christ actually dies. The one he thought was going to usher in this victorious kingdom is now dead. Not just taken away, taken and put in a prison. No, dead. Dead, dead. And not coming back. And he and his friends are now trying to figure out what does this mean. They're trying to reprocess. What have we done? What did we get wrong? And in the middle of that, here comes Mary, saying something unbelievable, that the tomb is empty. And he runs to the tomb, and he goes in, and he looks, and sure enough, it's empty. And then, this Jesus, who he was following, he had thrown his chips all in with him, and now is so confused, and his faith is wavering, appears to him, and he sees him, and he is alive. But even though Jesus is alive, he still doesn't know what to do. He ends up going fishing again, and he's all confused. And Jesus finally gets him on the shore. The passage that Pastor Scott read this morning, Jesus has got him there. And Jesus works, not to just let Peter go aside. This isn't Peter, you denied me, the end. So be it, go your own way, go fishing and live the rest of your life. No, Jesus is at work to specifically bring Peter back to him, to maintain Peter's faith. And when Peter's faith had failed, Jesus is at work to bring Peter back. And Jesus is at work in the same way in every one of your lives by His Spirit. And He does that by times like this that we have together around a word, where we try to understand what is Peter saying? And we come to understand this message of God has our faith, and then that bolsters our faith. And so we go out this week, and we live in obedience to Jesus, even when it's hard, even when it's difficult, even when it brings us into conflict with our spouse, or our children, or our friends, or our family, or our neighbors. and we continue to exercise that faith. And that is God working in us. Church family this morning, no matter how weak you might feel that your faith is, no matter how tempted you might be to set Jesus aside and not obey Him in this particular area of life, no matter how tempted you might be to abandon the faith, Jesus is at work in you, and He has got you. So believe in Him, praise Him, trust Him, and He will bring you through. Let's pray this morning. Thank you for listening to this message. If you would like to learn more about the Westside Baptist Church, please visit our website www.bibledirectionforlife.com. Subscribe to the podcast if you would like to hear new sermons and lessons each week. And remember that a sermon podcast is no substitute for opening up a Bible and reading it for yourself.